We live in a day where cell technology is nearly foolproof—until your cell drops the signal. Then you're screwed. But Google Maps may change this hard fact of life as early as this summer.

The rumor comes from an anonymous Dutch telecom executive, quoted by All About Phones. And it says that Google's planning on rolling out a version of Navigation that works off of the cached maps in your mobile device. We're not 100% on this (hence "rumor"), but it definitely seems like the kind of thing one would expect from a company that's trying to take over, I mean, "organize" the world.

Nokia's Ovi Maps have offered this sort of service for a while now, but that hasn't been the case for Google Navigation. Imagine how good it will feel to not be utterly, helplessly lost when you're driving and suddenly hit a dead zone. The downside? No longer having that "I couldn't find a detour" excuse when the subway suddenly announces a service change. [All About Phones via Engadget via Phandroid, Image credit: Phandroid]